So I'm working on my resume, and I'm a bit confounded by how to structure it. Previously, the sections were structured like this:
- Education
- Employment History
- Other Skills (HINT: none)
Fairly standard. The problem with this, of course, is that I have absolutely no work history in my chosen field of Library Science. The only experience I do have is this practicum, and another class where I did independent research for two professors at WSU; unfortunately, in both cases, I've had to pay for the privilege of doing library work.
I asked Veronica and
(Library)Mike about it last afternoon while we were on the reference desk; Veronica recommended that I might structure it like this:
- Education
- Library Experience
- Employment History
- Other Skills (HINT: still none)
I suppose this makes sense. I think I'm going to completely redo my resume; it has proven extremely ineffective in getting me even the chance to go for an interview. It's based on one of those Microsoft Word resume templates, and someone suggested to me that the eyes of those hiring may glaze over upon confronting the 98th consecutive applicant using Word's "Contemporary Resume" template. Makes sense to me.
Any thoughts among the librarians? Or among you lucky people in other areas who have actually managed to land jobs?
(Related to all this, objective statement: yea or nay? I've heard a compelling argument that the objective statement is redundant and takes up valuable space on the resume. Only, since I have little to no relevant experience, it's not like I have other things to do with the space. And does it actually matter to employers whether I am a member of
Phi Beta Kappa? I think the only people still impressed by this are my parents.)
8 comments:
I had to write and edit my resume twice in library school, and it helped get me two offers (I say helped because they were largely predicated on the hirers having worked with me before). The funny thing is, the job I really want uses a standardized government application form instead of a resume. Go figure.
That said, Veronica's structure idea sounds good, and I'd definitely chuck the template. As for objective statements, meh. The library school director didn't like them ("it's obvious, you want the job") and I kind of agree. I opted for starting with a list of "qualifications" that paraphrased the required skills of the job - here's where you dump your keywords from the job description.
If you want, and if you can, maybe lump PBK in with "professional organizations" at the bottom. Dunno if anyone cares, but can it hurt?
I have always heard -- and practiced -- that if you have little or no relevant work history, then what you want to emphasize are skills that are relevant to the job you're applying for and where you acquired them. So, I usually broke my resume (when I had to do this too because I had very little) this way:
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS: One to two sentences on why you are perfect.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Here's where you get creative. I usually would break this down into three or four areas of expertise relative to the job, underline them and then have a bullet or two explaining how you've utilized these skills in the past. Be creative.
Then, beneath the skills section, you list your actual jobs.
I had a book I used when I was doing this and it had a helpful list of verbs and skill words and also different resume types depending on what you want to emphasize (I think it was something lame like WINNING RESUMES - but helpful).
EDUCATION -- I put this last because I went to an unimpressive school and have only a b.a. If you've got more, you may want to frontload it above the professional experience section.
Then any memberships or other skills you have. I might add here that technical or computer skills can be folded in as one of your underlined areas of expertise.
That's probably about as clear and helpful as mud, but I don't have hte book or my resume handy to look at. Good luck! Oh and keep it to a page.
Hi,
My two cents:
- Dump the template.
-Dump the objective statement. Its bs. the employer knows it.
-if you are going for academic employment, perhaps a CV is better than a resume. Then you can list way more stuff. The Chronicle of Higher Education has some good resources.
-last year i paid a 'professional' resume service to jazz my resume up. overall it was a waste of $$$. But i have used the layout/format and rewritten most of it. If you're interested, when i get home i can look at it and give you the section headers/breakdown and then you can use that as a guide.
chin up! ;-)
I appreciate the comments, everyone. Today I contacted one of my professors, as well as a Communication's professor I did independant research for a while back, and asked if I could use them for references. They both said yes! So with Veronica, that makes three! I am very pleased; the reason I didn't continue on for my Master's in English after graduation (in spite of the welcome encouragement of Dr. Elizabeth Sklar, specialist in Arthurian Literature) was that one of the teachers I was sort of counting on for a recommendation couldn't remember me a year later. Stupid hippie. Anyways, so the first batch will be heading out tomorrow in the mail.
I am submitting a resume to the New York Public Library. I don't expect they'll hire me, and I'm not even sure that I want them to. I'm also applying to the University Library in the Jean and Charles Schulz (SPARKY!) Information Center at Sonoma State University, just because, well, SPARKY!
Should I indicate on my resume that I am a member of ALA? Even though I haven't really done any committee work or anything? I figure it's probably redundant.
Wish me luck!
(Oh, and my mom suggested I have my resume professionally done. I'd be interested in know how that is structured, actually...)
On the professional resume bit, here's how that works. You give them either your current resume to 'remake' or you can fill out some information forms for them to use to construct your resume. Most have a quick turn around of a couple days. You then get to review and edit the resume and send it back for one round of corrections. Generally it costs about 100-150 bucks.
Like I mention earlier, I didn't feel it was worth the money. I only used it because during my last trimester in Grad School we had a 1 unit professional development course, and a "new" resume was required to complete the course.
I didn't have time to do it since i was wrapped up in that thesis thing up to my eyeballs, still working full time, and ready to bloody snap. The professor didn't care if we did it ourselves or had a 'professional' do it--so I anted up the bucks to get it off my freakin plate. If you have time, and aren't fried mentally yet, then i'd just have a crack at it yourself.
Sonoma State is in one of the most beautiful places on earth! I used to live in Santa Rosa. Its close enough to San Francisco, yet not overly urban. Here's a quick 'brush w/fame' story that took place in Santa Rosa. Many moons ago, when I was living in Santa Rosa, everyone I knew pointed my eye to this house on top of a hill and said, "That's Charles Schultz house."
So one day my buddy and I drove up to his house, and knocked on the door to say hello. So, anyhow his wife answers the door, we say we are fans...just came by to say hello to Mr. Schultz. Next thing you know she hugs us, and invites us in to have lunch with them. We got a tour of the studio, met his mangy dog, learned that he likes to drink diet Sprite (who knew?), talked anthropology, Peanuts, and religion and two hours later we said goodbye. It was very exciting and very nice of them to be so kind to us. Anyhow that is my brush w/fame story.
Good luck with job hunting and resume thing!
db
That is so awesome! Peanuts was big in my school when I was a kid -- those awful little paperbacks that would reformat his strips and present the same strips in several of the volumes. I lost interest when I started reading comic books, which I believed were more "mature". His last (daily) strip was printed during my grandmother's funeral (she died on Dec 31, 1999 in my parents' house -- my dad joked that she wasn't Y2K compliant), and it's like I suddenly remembered why I liked it as a kid. So I started buying a bunch of the awful paperbacks and reading them, and found they were really good. So color me impressed!
I am reasonably comfortable with the resume I made this week; it's based on one of the templates, but I cut and rearranged everything as I felt was neccessary. Because library degrees sort of depend on ML(I)S degrees, I put the education info first, even though (like Gwenda) my school was/is hardly impressive, and even though it embarasses me that I got my undergrad and Master's at the same university. (There are only 50-ish Library Schools in the U.S. I wanted to pay in-state tuition, and the program at U of M tends to be theoretical and concentrated on stuff like "information architecture". I decided I wanted to gain actual skills.) Then I have my employment history section; a "library experience" section, where I detail the practicum and other skills I got from my classes (although this should maybe go second); and then a professional memberships section. It makes sense to me, so I should be pretty good; I have an idea of what libraries are looking for. And if they require something that I have had no training in (such as HTML), I make it clear in my cover letter that I have either been able to learn it on my own (as with HTML), or that I am confident that I would learn it quickly, or something to that effect. We'll see what it does for me.
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Cheers,
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